Tuesday, July 10, 2012

You’re going to love how simple it is to make your own table
scarf. Adding a little bit of fabric can bring out texture and add dimension to
your table-top display. Also, this simple scarf can double as a chair scarf!
Just tie one around your kitchen chairs for a little dress-up. They would be
perfect for a bridal or baby shower or even a wedding!

What you’ll need:

¼ yard decorator’s fabric

Matching thread

Sewing machine

1. You'll start off by cutting the fabric in half, creating two long strips. I picked out this taffeta fabric that was half off at my local fabric store. It has a tendency to fray easily, so I included the instructions below to help alleviate that issue.

2. Next, you are going to change the setting on
your sewing machine to a small zig zag stitch where the points of the zig zag
are close together (I’m such a novice at sewing I don’t even know the technical
term for this!). Sew the zig zag around all sides of both pieces of fabric, as
close to the edge as you can get. This will help all of the edges from fraying.

3 3. Since you will still have some fraying, like the
photo below, just take your scissors and trim all around the sides of both
pieces of fabric, cutting close to the stitching you just made.

4. Take two of the short ends and put the right
face of the fabric together. Change your machine back to a straight stitch and
sew the right sides together with a ¼” seam.

2

5. If you are a little bit pickier than me, you can
go ahead and press that seam with a steam iron. This might take you an extra
few minutes, so it will be a “10-minute Scarf” instead!

Now go tie your scarf around a chair and be amazed what you
can accomplish in 5 minutes. You’re good!

When we moved into our new home a couple of months ago, I
noticed a big dark spot under the edge of one of the bathroom mirrors (see
photo below). It was pretty noticeable, but I knew there had to be a solution.
After looking on the internet for some ideas, I found some tutorials where
people had just added a frame of molding to the outside of their builders’
grade mirrors. The look was totally custom! With the help of our contractor,
who was doing some other work in our home, we put this baby up in about 15
minutes flat! Better yet, the materials only ended up costing around $50.­­­­­­­

While I had my contractor help me with the cuts and adhering
the mirror, I don’t see why anyone with a miter saw or miter box couldn’t do
this project with a couple of people.

What you’ll need:

Enough molding to surround your bathroom mirror

Paint and/or glaze

Paintbrush

Miter saw or miter box and hand saw

Silicone & silicone gun

Painter’s tape

1. Buy your molding. I discussed my mirror idea
with my contractor, Kelly. He had never seen it done before but thought it
sounded like a fun idea. He helped me measure how much molding I was going to
need. I went to my local home improvement store and found some molding that you
could buy by the piece instead of by the foot. What I found was white plastic
“casing” that was a little over $11 per piece.

2. Start painting! I decided on a creamy white
paint that I already had at home. I only did one coat and then added some glaze
afterward.

3. Here is a photo of the pieces after I put on the
glaze (Mine was Van Dyke Brown from Sherwin Williams. To apply, just paint on a
tiny amount with a sponge brush and then wipe off with a soft cloth.). I also
ended up going back to the store and buying an additional piece of wood to add
to the original. This made my frame extra wide but still looks like one piece.
These pieces were $5 each.

4. Now you’re ready to cut your pieces. Remember –
it is always better to cut them a hair too big and trim them down if needed.
You’ll never be able to add back to the wood!
We measured the outside edge of the mirror to see how long the pieces
needed to be and cut them down with the miter saw at a 45 degree angle.

1 5. Then we measured the inside edge of the large
molding piece and cut the smaller board to fit the inside edge. Here are the
boards after cutting:

6. Now adhere the boards to the mirror. I was planning
to use Liquid Nails to adhere to the mirror, but since some of my boards were
made of plastic, my contractor suggested we use silicone. Just the clear kind
you would use to caulk a bathroom tub with. He said there was a good chance the
Liquid Nails would melt through the plastic. I couldn’t argue with that – he
really knows what he’s doing.

We just took the piece that would be at the bottom of the mirror
and ran a long bead of silicone across the bottom, then dotting some silicone
every 6 inches. We put the sides on next and the top piece on last. Then we
went ahead and added the smaller pieces.

1 7. You’ll want to tape the corners with painter’s
tape to secure them. Also tape the top piece up really good and leave the tape
on overnight.

1 8. You can go ahead and seal up the gaps in the
corners (if there are any) and touch them up. This makes it look really
professional!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

This is probably one of the easiest crafts you’ll ever make!
It just takes a little time to prep and string the items, but other than that
no creative genius is necessary.

What you’ll need:

100 vintage book pages

50 white coffee filters

50 natural coffee filters

2 yards dark brown ribbon

2 yards light brown ribbon

½ yard cream tulle

½ yard light brown tulle

Tapestry needle

1 yard natural postal string or crochet thread

If you would like to substitute any of the above items with
items you already have in your craft stash, feel free. The more eclectic, the
better!

You’ll start off by prepping all of your
materials. Take your book pages and fold them into quarters. That just means
fold them in half and then fold them in half again. It looks best if they are
not folded perfectly

Crumple a coffee filter into a ball to give it
some texture. Flatten it out slightly, fold in half, then fold again. I like to
fold it one more time when I’m stringing the filters onto the garland. Repeat
with all of the coffee filters.

For the ribbon, all you need to do is cut it
into strips with the ends at an angle. Each piece should be 4” – 5” long.

With the tulle, you will want to end up with 2”
– 3” pieces. Really it doesn’t matter if some pieces are bigger than others. I
like to fold my tulle several times in the same direction and cut long strips.
Then I cut those strips into squares.

Thread the needle with the same string and knot the end, leaving about 8" of string. Starting with a book page, thread it on. Then a white coffee filter and the dark brown ribbon, followed by the cream
tulle. When you put on the ribbon, fold it in half and thread through toward
the ends. This way, the loop part will be bigger. Add another book page, then a
natural coffee filter, a light brown ribbon and the brown tulle. Repeat until
you have used up all of your materials.

1

When I hung mine, I just tied the loose ends of
the string to some ribbons I had on a frame. You can also tie it to the back of
a chair or across a window or mantle.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

My family just made a big move from Virginia to Utah. Back to
what I know and where I grew up. It’s definitely refreshing. But moving to a
new home can be stressful; boxes to unpack, a yard to care for (a totally new
concept for us), an unfamiliar neighborhood to come to know. It takes awhile to
get into your normal groove and feel comfortable. And let’s be honest – I am
hoping that in two years I’ll all of my pictures hung on the wall!

But one thing is for sure--clearing out all of your stuff
and starting anew allows you to look at things from a different perspective and
make a few changes by way of décor. Adding a pop of color here and there can go
a long way in brightening up your room. And why not create a pop of color that’s
not only attractive to look at but also has a function? Here we go with the
Ruffled Kitchen Towel.

And as a side note, not all of my articles are going to
involve sewing or any other complicated skills. I’m more of a simplified glue
gun type of girl. I wanted to keep these “Small and Simple” tutorials just as
they suggest – small and simple.

What you’ll need:

White kitchen towel

6 fabric strips - 3”
x 2x width of towel

Sewing machine with white thread

Needle ­­­­­­­­­

1

1.You’ll want to start off by clean finishing all
of the edges of your fabric strips. If you have a serger, go ahead and use that
for this step. I don’t have a serger, so I just did a zig zag stitch as close
to the edge of the fabric as I could make it.

2 2. Once you have done the clean finish on all of
the edges, go ahead and fold over one of the long sides of each strip and
stitch a straight stitch. This will be the bottom edge of the ruffle and will
show, so you want it to look nicely finished. You can stitch the short sides of
each strip as well.

3 3. Now for the ruffles! There are lots of different
ways to create a ruffle. I recently discovered that you can just gather and sew
the strip into a ruffle as you sew it onto the towel. So simple!

I like the look of the diagonal
ruffle, so I just made sure to pin 4 pins to hold my fabric strip in place so I
could sew the ruffle that way. Just work one ruffle at a time, overlapping the
ruffles by about ¼”so you don’t see the towel underneath.

4 4.Once your ruffles are all sewn on, you’re ready
to embellish. I had an extra large vintage button that happened to match some
of my fabric. I just took the last ruffle and hand sewed it into a circle, then
sewed the button on top.­­­­­